Did the stimulus cost more than the Iraq War? (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/aug/26/did-stimulus-cost-more-iraq-war/)

This one has been making the rounds -- thought we should check in with a fact checking site:

At first glance, the numbers look pretty close. The most recent figures from the Congressional Budget Office, released in August 2010, put the total cost for the stimulus -- from February 2009 through 2019 -- at $814 billion. Estimated funding for the war in Iraq totals $709 billion from 2003 to 2010, according to the same CBO report.

But note the different time periods. The stimulus costs are projected through 2019. But the war spending is calculated only to the end of this year.

We also should note that the $814 billion cost for the stimulus includes $70 billion to fix a problem with the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is designed to target the wealthiest taxpayers but is gradually affecting more people in the middle class.

As for the war cost, we found a variety of opinions on the total. Some reports have higher estimates than the CBO’s for that same time period.

It gets a barely true rating. Fair enough.

But since W. got us into the War and tanked the economy to point where a government investment was warranted to stop the bleeding... I guess we can say thanks to GWB for both.

What gets me is that this talking point assumes the soliders' lives had no real value besides their training, uniforms, and weapons.

In their calculations they tally the training, the lost uniforms, guns, damage to the vehicles hit by IEDs -- but what about the value of a human life ended early?

Jfor

08-30-2010, 03:07 AM

You're right, that was pretty thin.

But the cost (value) of a person's life is what I was getting at.

In their calculations they tally the training, the lost uniforms, guns, damage to the vehicles hit by IEDs -- but what about the value of a human life ended early?

Since when do you liberals care about our soldiers? They (myself included) volunteered KNOWING that there is a very strong possibility that they could be put into harm's way. The vast majority of the troops believe in the mission. So that's good enough for me.

Wei Wu Wei

08-30-2010, 10:47 AM

So..... do tax cuts in the stimulus package count as "spending" or "cost"?

PoliCon

08-30-2010, 10:53 AM

what tax cuts?

warpig

08-30-2010, 11:06 AM

what tax cuts?

That 7.95 they gave you.

Jfor

08-30-2010, 12:09 PM

So..... do tax cuts in the stimulus package count as "spending" or "cost"?